Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is barely a few weeks old and we are already seeing a lot of encouraging signs from the developer community, although manufacturers have been far less forthcoming in announcing their plans for JB.

Advertisement

Of course, when you say developer community, the first name that comes to mind is CyanogenMod. The CM team is already hard at work preparing the new CM10 (CyanogenMod’s version of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean). The good news is that the difference between ICS and JB is not that big, meaning that we won’t have to wait six months to see the new CM10. The bad news is the differences are significant enough to require manual code mergers, which means that flashing maniacs will have to wait before they’ll be able to try out the first nightly builds.

“Hardware integration is progressing nicely”, according to prominent CyanogenMod developer Ricardo Cerqueira. In a post on Google Plus, Cerqueira showed that he got CM10 running on LG’s current flagship device, the Optimus 4X HD. The dev points out that the purpose of the preview is to show that development of CM10 is not only about Nexus devices, and owners of other devices should look forward to some JB goodness.

The preview shows a fairly stable build, with a functional camera, sound, and calling capabilities. On the down side, the new Google Now search feature is not working, but that’s something that will probably be solved in the close future.

Overall, this preview is great news for Android fans. It means that CM10 might make a surprisingly early appearance, which is a welcomed change, after the many months of wait that preceded the arrival (still partial) of CM9 (CyanogenMod’s version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich).